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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28188663">Between The Lines</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RissaValentine/pseuds/RissaValentine'>RissaValentine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Cowboy Bebop (Anime)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, all the characters - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:53:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,486</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28188663</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RissaValentine/pseuds/RissaValentine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Let me help you carry that weight. Drabbles of Spike/Faye.</p><p> </p><p>Rewrites from FF.net</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jet Black &amp; Ed &amp; Spike Spiegel &amp; Faye Valentine, Julia/Spike Spiegel, Julia/Spike Spiegel/Vicious, Spike Spiegel/Faye Valentine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Smile Like Hers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>He shouldn't compare them, but he does.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Before he realizes his mistake, her eyes are burning with tears and his face is tingling in pain. He hears her curse his name under her shallow breath, before she turns on her heels, and leaves him standing in a daze. At first, he feels confused, then all at once, he feels stupid.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He remembers a time when he was younger and his mother told to be careful when he spoke. She explained to him how his words could hurt someone. That his words could quickly turn into knives. And in this situation, he finally understood her wisdom from long ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he spoke to Julia, she never showed any emotion, she never reacted. She always smiled or nodded her head in agreement. A perfect actress. A perfect syndicate woman to the very end. Faye Valentine on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He could say the slightest thing and all the emotion in her body would flash across her face. She could never hide anything from him. He knew when he spoke to her each syllable stabbed her harder than the last. He knew this; yet, seeing her react to him gave him something. Gave him a feeling he could not define or name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What was all that ‘bout?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jet’s voice breaks him from his self-made trance. He is staring at him from the corridor that connects the kitchen to the common space, a dish towel hanging in his hands, and a quizzical look on his face. Somehow he does not know how to answer him. Then the Redtails engine booms through the corridor, reminding him of his last mistake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Had to be something to make her that mad.” Jet wipes his hands with the dish towel, “Dinners almost ready.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Jet disappears before anything else could be said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He slumps onto the couch, his mismatched eyes focus on the rotating fan above him.  His body aches for a cigarette, but he has none.  His throat is dry, begging for the whiskey that is usually hidden in the bonsai room, but he drank it the night before with Faye.  Both of his hands cover his face, his palms for the first time in a long time are moist from being nervous. His last spoken knives echo in his mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Sometimes, you smile like her</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hates himself suddenly. He hates himself for comparing them again. He knows he does it more than he should. He does it when she’s not looking. Everything between them is different. The only thing that they have in common is when Faye gets that far off look in her eyes or when her lips curl into that fake smile. The same smile Julia would give him before she would run off to Vicious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Closing his eyes, he feels a familiar cold shiver flow through his body and he knows he’ll never be able to forgive himself.</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Their Stars</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Watching Stars never seemed so complicated.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Neither of them was exactly sure when it first started. When the first night of this slow dance they called silence allowed them to sit in each other's company and do nothing, but stare out into the stars. Their cigarettes dangled from their lips and fingers as the stillness engulfed them. The first few times they found themselves staring out the giant windows of the control room, neither of them spoke. They just watched the stars twinkle in the infinite darkness, enjoying the others presence, even if it was silent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had been the first one to break the tranquility, saying that he was once told, by a wise friend, that when someone dies a star fades with that person. He still wasn't sure why he spoke first. Why he decided that if she was going to be living on the ship he might as well try to be civil with her. She had, after all, watched over him for those three days after his encounter with Vicious. Maybe it was something in the pit of his soul that didn't like the fact that she had already been used against him by his past. That she had somehow gotten tangled in his dream without evening knowing it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She let out a small hum in acknowledgement to his statement, her eyes searching the countless stars quickly, until she found what she was looking for. A star flickered in the distance. The star was brighter than all the others when it did shine, but then it would quickly darken before she could admire it. Pointing a slender finger at the unsure star, she flashed him a smile, telling him that his star was wavering one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He laughed and asked her why.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She told him very simply it was because he was always coming back to the Bebop barely alive. He didn't say anything, only nodded in understanding, which made her continue to tell him how the star next to his was her star, because it was too dim to even shine. He still remained quiet. She quickly laughed to fill his silence and stood up; she was done with the stars. Taking one last drag of her dying cigarette, she stamped it out in the ashtray between them. Moving to the door, she stopped half away and looked over her shoulder. With a quick sigh, she told him how she hoped his star would figure out if it was going to fade or if it was going to shine brighter than all the rest. He turned around to look at her, but she was already gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few months passed before they found themselves looking back out towards the stars. He finds her standing in front of one of the large windows, her arms hugging her own body. He slowly walked towards her, stopping just a few feet away. His fingers dig into the fabric of his pink coat when she finally breaks the silence. Her voice cracking as she makes an unusual confession for never liking the color blue and the fact that Ed had painted one of her toenails blue. She tells him why she took the antifreeze and that there was only enough money in the safe to get her to Callisto and buy her a few rounds at the bar. Somewhere in her story, she mentions Gren and how she had almost felt something real. Some reason for living. When she goes quiet, the only reply he gives her is about his suit. Reminding her it was blue and it was his favorite suit. She tries to laugh, but instead a sob escapes her lips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He clenches his coat closer to his hip; he could not remember the last time a woman had cried in front of him. He could only think of his mother being the last woman he had ever seen crying. Julia never cried, at least, she never did around him. He sometimes wondered if behind all the smiles, that never seemed to reach her eyes, if she wasn't just as broken as him. Just looking for an escape from her life, her own dream. He almost reaches that point of his mind where he shuts down, but he is broken from his thoughts at the sound of his name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She's now looking at him. A fake smile plastered to her face as she asked if he could help her find Gren's star before it could fade. Her smile almost reminds him of the color blue and he has a strong urge to refuse. The familiar stab of jealousy creeps into the back of his mind, but he can't bring himself to say no to her green eyes. That night, he stands besides her and pretends to search the stars, and for some reason, at that very moment, he hoped that they would never find it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next time it happens is completely by accident. They both had just returned from the ISSP Station after turning Whitney in for the unfulfilling bounty. He was lying lazily on the couch and she sat on the stairs. Her hands worked fast to open up her new pack of cigarettes. She had already smoked about ten and he was only working on his second. He raises an eyebrow at her, telling her that she was going to kill herself if she kept smoking like that. She only shrugs. He continues to tell her, if she would die on the Bebop, he would shoot her body out into space, exactly like he did with that refrigerator. For a moment, her head drops forward, then he hears her trying to stifle a laugh, but she fails. She bends over, one arm holding her stomach and the other gripping the rail to keep herself from falling down the steps. She tries to imitate herself floating like a rag doll through space. He tries to laugh with her, but slowly it dies in his throat as he remembers why they were laughing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He tries to be the first to stand up to leave, but she beats him to the punch, telling him she felt like counting stars. He stares up at her and she is staring right back at him. For a moment, he couldn't blame Whitney for falling in love with her beauty. Then he is reminded of her being in a cryogenic slumber since before he was even born. How terribly frightened it must have been for her to wake up with no memory and no one who remembered her. Everything about how she acts and why she does certain things, slowly starts to make sense to him. Smiling, he tells her to wait until they had more cigarettes to count stars and that they would just have to watch them for now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It's not until after she helps him back to the Bebop after fighting that crazed man in the theme park that they return to sitting in the dark watching the stars; watching their stars. She quietly asks him if he was afraid of anything. He thinks it over for a moment. Before Julia, he was never scared of dying. He was so reckless in his younger days; sometimes it still surprises him to wake up each morning still alive. However, after Julia, he was more cautious and tried not to take too many risks. It was not until that day she left him waiting out in the cool rain that he finally died. Sighing, he tells her that he fears nothing anymore, not even death. He tells her that he has already seen death once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She takes in his answer before asking him her next question. She says it quickly, but pronounces every syllable: What if someone you cared about died?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looks over at her, she's not looking at him, and her eyes are shimmering with unshed tears. Taking a deep breath, he quietly tells her that was a totally different question and situation. That it didn't matter if you were afraid of death or not, when someone you cared about dies, a part of you dies with them. She nods at his answer and he stands, making up the excuse that it was starting to get late. She agrees, but says she was going to wait a little longer before she went to bed. He shrugs and begins to walk away; he only stops halfway when she says his name. He doesn't turn around and she doesn't look at his retreating back. He listens to her take a deep breath and she speaks softly, telling him to try to wait a little longer before he decides to die, she doesn't think his star is ready to fade. He smiles before walking out the door, his heart slamming against his ribcage with each step he takes from her. It is the first time, he realizes, he is scared of something. Neither one of them knew that it would be the last time for them to watch the stars together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, here he was standing in the hall, his communication link in hand as he watches her face light up across the screen, green eyes narrowing when she sees him. He doesn't waste time and asks where she is. She left without warning, a low blow, not to his ego, but to their strange relationship. He thought they had gotten past the hiding and running off. He hears the annoyance in her voice when she asks what he wants. He doesn't want to fight with her. He just wants to make sure she is somewhere safe before everything breaks loose. He explains to her that he is going to Tharsis and that she needed to meet him there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She simply asks why.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He then tells her about Jet being injured and that she needed to quit wasting time and get back to the ship. He sees her eyes flash with anger as she asks him what made him think she was coming back and that he took too much for granted then his screen goes black.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He grumbles a few curse words, because he knows what she meant. He took her for granted. Took everything that she had ever offered him and pretended it didn't mean anything. She never offered anything more than she was willing to lose and nothing more than he was willing to take. However, he knew if he had ever asked for more, she would have gladly given everything she had to him. Everything that he knew he couldn't give her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sighs in a strange solemn of defeat and makes his way to the control room, where he sits down, and stares out into the million stars that they had tried to count when they finally had enough cigarettes. His mind is spinning with a thousand different thoughts after he realizes that they are probably following her too. Vicious knows she is involved with him; that she lives and works with him. He curses under his breath again as he looks at the star that she had once pronounced as his. It flickered in the distance while her star was still just as dim. He recalls her telling him to find out if he was going to shine brighter than everyone and wonders why she was so worried about his star when her star was faintly even there. He runs a hand through his hair. He knows the answer to his own question. He'll never be able to look at stars the same.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That's when the clicking of a cane echoing through the silence, it almost makes him jump, and that's the moment Jet tells him a meaningless story about some man who was obsessed with a mountain. He barely listens, because he is too busy trying to keep an eye on their stars. Then when Jet finishes his story, for a split second, he almost asks him why the man was chasing after a mountain when he could have been reaching for the stars instead.</span>
</p><p> </p>
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